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Friday, December 6, 2013

Because Who Is Perfect?

Another happy Friday to everybody! If
you are in Portland, you might be too distracted by the snowy surprise nature left us this morning to read this, but I, as always,
hope you find today's post worth your while.

Some of you may have seen the Dove Real Beauty blind portrait video that was passing its way through
the internet not too long ago. In it, female participants were asked
to do two things: describe their faces to a professional sketch
artist, and get to know a stranger who was participating in the
experiment as well. The strangers were also asked to describe the
women's faces to the sketch artist, and the drawings were compared,
revealing not only the women's insecurities about their physical
appearances, but also their actual impressions on people.

Swiss organization for people with
disabilities, Pro Infirmis, recently conducted a project with
a similar feel to it. The project, entitled “Because Who Is
Perfect? Get Closer”, involved creating a series of clothing
mannequins of actual people with disabilities. Their goal was to
raise awareness that nobody has a perfect, mannequin-esque body.
Participants included notable members of the disabled community, like
Miss Handicap winner Jasmine Rechsteiner and actor Erwin
Aljukic, who had never
seen their figures replicated before.

The
most striking part of this project, though, was not the mannequins
themselves, but what Pro Infirmis did with them. In honor of the UN's
International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which was December
3rd,
these unique mannequins were clothed and put in the window displays
of stores along downtown Zurich's main street.

In
the video that documents this project, some participants express
their curiosities and doubt about the public's reaction to their
mannequin selves. “I am keen to know whether people will see the
disability,” one says, while another comments, “People passing by
[the windows] will be really irritated.”

Passersby
definitely took notice. Whether their reactions were mostly positive
or negative is difficult to say, but it seems that Pro Infimis did
what they set out to accomplish: bring attention to the disabled
community, especially in the context of fashion.

Take
a look at the video (my ultimate favorite part is at 2:34) and share
your thoughts! What do you think about Pro Infirmis's project?